"The aurora danced above us both nights, green and blue and white undulating together, a cold ocean up there in the sky, and even that he barely glanced at."

"You are not so terrible, Em. You merely need friends who are dragons like you."

"He’s prettier when he’s asleep, eh? You don’t notice that big mouth of his."

"I half listened in astonishment. I say half, because I was mostly just watching you, observing the way your mind clicks and whirrs like some fantastical clock"

"I have grown rather used to pining, so it won’t put me out to keep at it, I suppose.”

""I will depart these shores before the winter is out,” I said. “Wouldn’t it be best for you to find a fjolskylda among the Ljoslanders?”

“It doesn’t matter where you are,” he said simply."